Sharif's challenge: Work with Pakistani press, not against it

Pakistan's general elections in May, though marred
by violence that left more than 100 dead, was a reaffirmation of the people's
commitment to the democratic process. Voters proved once again that they can
make decisions based on their own political interests--and not because of
intimidation by those who would perpetrate violence. The media, with their
nonstop coverage, arrived as full-fledged partners in the democratic process
and were intrinsic to the first civilian transfer of power after the completion
of a five-year term by a democratically elected government. Now, the question
is: What will come next for the media under Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's
government?

Clearly, the country has moved far beyond the days of Sharif's
former administrations. It would be a massive failure on his part to revert to
the strongman tactics he used when he was last in office. A look back at CPJ's
archives shows that Sharif was anything but media-friendly--or even media-tolerant.
In 2001, we referred
to "the bare-knuckle tactics that former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif used to
control the press" before he was deposed by Gen. Pervez Musharraf. In 1999, we
wrote an open letter to Sharif: "The Committee to Protect Journalists is
shocked by the range of tactics your administration is using to harass and
intimidate the Jang Group of Newspapers, Pakistan's largest newspaper
publishing company."

The more you delve, the worse Sharif's record looks. In her March
2002 special report Pakistan: The Press for Change, CPJ's Kavita Menon nailed
Sharif's behavior succinctly:

In his two and
a half years in power, Sharif had made a reputation for himself as a bully--not
least because of the heavy-handed way he dealt with journalists who dared to
criticize his government. Sharif was not unique in exploiting official power to
silence his detractors. Pakistan has suffered a host of thin-skinned rulers,
virtually all of whom, whether democratically elected or self-appointed, have
used the available state machinery to try to control the press. But the Sharif
administration did so with particular zeal and efficiency. His government
ratcheted up the pressure on independent journalists, coupling more oblique
strategies of muzzling the press with increasingly aggressive, public shows of
retribution.

Want more evidence? Here's a telling excerpt
from CPJ's 1999 Attacks on the Press:

Former Prime
Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif's efforts to muzzle the press, and bring the
legislative, judicial, and executive branches of government under his personal
control, earned him the reputation of a tyrant and badly discredited Pakistan's
democracy. His slide toward authoritarianism ended abruptly with a bloodless
coup on October 12, in which army chief Gen. Pervez Musharraf took power.

When Musharraf took power, he immediately declared himself "a firm
believer in the freedom of the press," then referred to the press's duty to
"play a positive and constructive role." He also made it clear he
would be the one deciding whether or not the media were doing their job. Despite
his battles with the media, broadcast news grew exponentially during his
administration with the spread of cable TV technology. As with Sharif, CPJ
proceeded to go head to head with the military leader.

It was journalists and lawyers who took to the streets (often at
odds with each other, it must be said) who brought down Musharraf. And they did
not step away from confronting former President Asif Ali Zardari. For his part,
Zardari felt he could play hard with the media as if it were still the good old
bad old days. When his government proved incapable of coping with disastrous
flooding in 2010, his party loyalists kicked major news broadcasters ARY TV and Geo TV off
the air in Sindh province. Even
though impunity in journalist murders accelerated
during his tenure, the press increasingly repelled his attempts to control or
cow them.

Clearly, the country and the local press are different after Musharraf
and Zardari. The concern is not so much that that Prime Minister Sharif will be
so foolish as to try the same strongman tactics that were his modus operandi in
1999. The fear is that the arrogance will still be there, and he will make the
Zardari-type blunders of the post-Musharraf military rule era. Given the
political ineptitude of the past decades, there is a crying need for the launch
of real governance and not just more of the same power-base politics. The prime
minister has to accept that the media are integral to the functioning of the democratic
process that brought him to power in Pakistan.

As Menon correctly wrote in her 2002 report, "The press in
Pakistan, despite more than four decades of government efforts to control it,
is remarkably vigorous and aggressive." Now, in 2013, we can update that to "five
decades and counting" of remarkable vigor and aggression. Let's hope Sharif's government
can keep pace with the growth of the media.

Bob Dietz, coordinator of CPJ’s Asia Program, has reported across the continent for news outlets such as CNN and Asiaweek. He has led numerous CPJ missions, including ones to Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka. Follow him on Twitter @cpjasia and Facebook @ CPJ Asia Desk.